Is Wi-Fi a Good Business Plan?
Do you want to take your business to the next level? Become a Wi-Fi Spot! Nothing's more popular for attracting and keeping customers happy than being a Wi-Fi Spot! Just ask Starbucks, McDonald's and Barnes and Noble.
What You will Need to be a Wi-Fi Spot...
If you are interested in the business potential of Wi-Fi, you really only need a couple of items to make it happen:
- A Hot Spot Package - hardware, software and remote monitoring
- A High Speed Internet Connection - even Naked DSL without phone lines is possible
A Couple of Decisions
With these pieces of the Wi-Fi puzzle, you need to make two decisions: Will you offer a single access point, or multiple access points? This decision depends on your business and the physical limitations of space.
For example, you have a small antique bookstore that has a steady client based, but rarely a big crowd all at once. You would like to offer a Wi-Fi Spot for customers to look up information or research a topic of interest. A single access point would be the perfect solution! On the other hand, a hotel would want to plan for one access point every 20 rooms on average. The choice here would be multiple access points.
Finally you need to decide whether you will bill your Wi-Fi users or absorb the cost as a value-added feature for your business. Smaller, out the way places that consumers would welcome a Wi-Fi Spot can get away with charging a small fee, but don't make it unreasonable. Most Wi-Fi Spots today are public access, meaning their is no fee to use and the business (or city) provides Wi-Fi free of charge.
If you do decide to bill users - decide how much and how they will pay. Remember Wi-Fi'ers want convenience and easy use, so don't bog them down with policies. Perhaps a simple debit card scan when accessing the Wi-Fi would suffice.
This is a very simple look at becoming a Wi-Fi Spot in your community. Do some research before deciding. Once you have decided let the professionals handle the Wi-Fi Spot set-up.